Well, we are back from our summer holiday and I have managed to get out running a few times.  The week before we left I got up and out at 6am 3 times.  Tom , Lily & I managed a trip to the beach but for once it was the children who decided it was too cold and wanted to come home after an hour much to my delight as I too was frozen and I was wearing clothes and not in the water unlike T & L.  We had a visit from more Americans but this time it was family and just for the day.

Tom, Andrew, Grace & Lily

 On Saturday we drove through to mum & dad's for the night before setting off down south on Sunday morning.  We had a night in a guest house before arriving at our cottage in Herefordshire on Monday.  We spent Sunday and Monday morning in and around Worcester looking in estate agents and  schools then on Tuesday we looked around Ledbury and Hereford - both of which are very beautiful towns. 


lily riding Misty

The cottage we stayed in was Darren Mill Cottage and was lovely, the daughter of the owners had a pony called Misty and let Lily ride him which she loved. 

View of our cottage

On Friday we left the cottage and drove to Wiltshire for a quick visit with Helen who has just got back from the Falkland Islands - we hadn't seen each other since before we left for America so it was lovely to catch up with each other and the children could remember each other too so after a bite of lunch they went off to the play park for an hour or so before we got back in the car to head off towards Bournemouth to see John and the boys. 

Tom & Nathan constructing a pond

We had a lovely meal out with John on Friday and then on Saturday we went to Lisa's for the morning and to collect Nathan (unfortunately Conor had a party to attend so couldn't come with us).  We arrived at John's to discover the start of a pond being built so needless to say as soon as Nathan and Tom saw the hole they wanted to build the pond.  We ended up just staying at the house and the boys had a great time playing in the mud pool.  Lily even joined in eventually.  After a chinese takeaway for dinner we took Nathan home and had another game of cricket in the back garden with Conor.  This time using the cricket ball instead of the tennis ball ...  this led to Nick giving Conor a shiner and Nathan a fat lip.  Not good, back to tennis balls in future I think.  All too soon it was Sunday and we were on the move again, this time up to Somerset to visit with Nick's mum & dad.  They are in the middle of an ambitious extension so Tom got to help lay a couple of bricks, sleep in a hammock in the garden with his cousin Benaiah and generally lark around for a couple of days.  Lily had great fun in  the garden with Tallulah & Elsie and everyone adored little Gladys.  The girls all picked cherries from the garden and Nana should have made some jam by now. 

Tom & Grampy building the house

 We drove back up North as far as my mum & dad's again on Tuesday and as it was a gorgeous day were able to enjoy a delicious bbq with them at the picnic table (no umbrellas in sight this time).  Then we were up early on Wednesday and home by about 10am.  I went out for a quick run and then as Nick is still on holiday until Monday we decided to go out for lunch and then go on to see Harry Potter at the cinema.  What a brilliant film, definitely the best of the lot.

 Well, after my brilliant 6am start last Monday there has been no running since.  No excuses other than laziness I'm afraid.  On Tuesday last week Nick and I got dressed up in our finery and went off to Edinburgh to have a cup of tea with the Queen....and a few thousand other people.  We had a lovely time and the weather stayed kind to us whilst we enjoyed our cucumber sandwiches, salmon blinis and delightful petit fours.  The one downside was that we were not allowed to take any photographs so it will just be a memory for us and  not one we can share with you. 

The rest of the week was spent doing very little until Friday when I found myself back at Ninewells Hospital....thankfully not for me this time though, Nick had been having a 'sports day' at work when I got a call around 4pm to say he had hurt himself (no drama - not badly) and could I go and collect him from the hospital.  Turns out he had been playing dodgeball - badly I assume -  and had dislocated his pinkie so had to go for xrays and to have it put back in its correct position.   

On Saturday Lily was very excited as Emily was arriving with her mum and aunt, their flight was delayed due to bad weather in the US so they finally got to us around 4pm and it was like the two girls had never been apart.  Very sweet.

Colleen, Emily and Wanda

On Sunday we had a sightseeing tour of St Andrews and then went out to Zizzi's for a delicious dinner before walking home via the Lade Braes.
All too soon it was Monday and Nick was back to work and Colleen, Emily and Wanda said their goodbyes and set off on a whirlwind tour of the UK.  The beds are stripped yet again but there's no rush to make them up again just yet.  Tom, Lily and I are having a restful day and then will host our Texan cousins tomorrow for the day.

Well I have finally had my final blood test and my results showed my hcg levels back down to 1 so that's good news. It's funny to think I could have been sitting here nearly 14 weeks pregnant.
Scary thought.
I managed out running 3 times last week and whilst I'm not going to be winning any races anytime soon at least I am back out there.
Nick was down at Waddington from Friday until Sunday evening for the Waddington Airshow and Tom & Lily finished school for summer on Friday.
We had a fairly relaxed Saturday and spent Sunday at the beach with Angela, Amber & Daisy. It was a glorious day, the beach was very busy and we all had a great day out, unfortunately it was spoiled slightly for Ang & Amber by getting sunburnt. Ouch.
So today is the first official day of the school holidays - no making of packed lunches for me, thank goodness. Instead I got up extra early, 6am, and went for a run before Nick went off to work. A good start, hopefully I can keep it up throughout the summer.